Quoting sections to reply

I’ve just tried to quote a very small section of an email in order to send a detailed and specific response to that query and whilst on other email clients I’m used to just highlighting the relevant bit and clicking reply, eM doesn’t seem to do this by default

How can I configure eM to only quote and reply to the specific lines of text I’ve quoted in an email? (and not quote the entire message and probably the entire lengthy thread at the same time)

Thanks in advance

I haven’t seen that sort of reply option. I just delete whatever i don’t want when replying or forwarding.

Wow! I’m amazed this feature doesn’t exist yet. I’m evaluating eM at the moment and it otherwise looks quite nice, but without selective quoting I won’t be able to use it. This really is a deal breaker. I’ve never used an email client in 30 years that isn’t able to do selective quoting! Also a ‘paste as quote’ feature and ‘format as quote’ seem to be missing too. These are totally essential features in an email app …

I don’t see any quote popup in eM - nor is there any quote option in the right-click menu …

This question relates to the email software client eM client and NOT the forum web UI

We are saying there’s no way to do this in the desktop EMAIL client

:man_facepalming:

My bad! I didn’t read your initial question well enough. In that case, I agree with @cyberzork in his answer above.

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Aside from not having a quote formatting option which IMO is the only necessary formatting needed in an email app, the editor seems to randomly change between plain text and html even though plain text is chosen in the preferences! :man_facepalming:

I can see it’s not worthwhile evaluating this app any further if basic text editing is so broken to be unusable …

@bluefuzz:

Please let me try to help.

First. let me say that I am an eM Client user just like you and I may not always have the answer you want. Next, let me state that I have tried a lot of email clients, and overall, I think eM Client is one of the best two out there when you consider all the functions it performs and the help you get from its Forum.

If I understand you correctly, you are having an issue with the way eM Client Settings / Mail /Compose Mail Format and Preferred Style preferences are working when you are composing an email.

When you state “randomly change between plain text and html”, do you mean that:

  1. It is happening as you are typing new text in a new email, or
  2. It is happening when you copy something from somewhere else and paste it in the email you are working on?

If it is #1, I must admit I have never had that problem in the 5 years I have been using this product.

If it is # 2, that could be caused because eM Client is picking up the font of the copied test. When you do a Paste, you should see a pop-up that lets you pick how you want to paste the text when you click on the down v. - “Paste” or “Paste Formatted” (depending on how you accessed the Paste function) - Uses the font of the copied test. Whereas “Paste Text” - Uses the font already in use in you email. (See Below).

Does that help or confuse the issue? :thinking:

The issue is that even though plain text is selected in preferences pressing any of the buttons on the formatting bar turns on the html formatting without warning! Why is there even a formatting bar when plain text is selected?

Your preference to have “Plain Text” defined in your settings is a default. I would assume that there is a formatting bar always present so that you have the option to change your formatting at any time in the email. That allows you a lot of possibilities.

If you feel that eM Client should make a change, please open a new post as a “Feature Request” so your idea can be evaluated.

What’s the point in having preference settings if they are not respected? This is clearly a bug not a feature request.

@bluefuzz

Okay, that is not a problem. Since this specific post was started to address quoting sections of emails, and your issue is not about that subject, it would be best for you to open a new post to specifically address your issue and get it the proper attention. Would you be willing to do that?

My issue is very much about that subject. It is because of the lack of useable quoting options that I happened to click on the ‘indent’ button hoping it might add the standard ‘>’ quote symbols. It was only then I discover it had also changed the format to HTML!

Since I’m unlikely to continue using eM I see little point. There are other issues than the message editor that I am not too keen on …

That Indent button is for paragraph formatting which is not available in plain text. Therefor the message is changed to HTML to accommodate the formating you requested.

So I discovered. But it’s a really poor UI. If I have explicitely set plain text in preferences I should not see formatting options only available in HTML. At the very least the app should ask/warn me before switching to HTML.

But I didn’t request it! Indenting is theoretically possible in plain text and common in other plain text editors so obviously I expected the button to indent the text, not change it to HTML …

It is pretty easy to quote something early by just using the > followed by “you said,” or something like that. But without HTML, it is hard to quote one part, answer it, quote another part and answer it, quote a third part and answer it.

Without color, bold, italics or formatting all I can think of is to list the things you will respond to by number. "You said 3 things: " then list them 1, 2 3. Then respond to #1 then #2 etc.

Personally, I’d use the formatting and switch to html. The battle for text email was lost long ago.

I must confess. I found this missing feature in emClient a surprise. Yes, other email clients allow you to
a) select the required text
b) Press F4
c) the message opens with the quoted text in the right position

So simple and yet so elegant.

The process in emclient requires way too many checks and clicks.

I hope they fix it soon.